When Undressing Causes Stress in Women

Do you know someone who avoids the gym, or chooses to not shower afterwards because they do not want others to see them without clothes?

A new study investigates the reasons as to why women are often disturbed and stressed by the acts of disrobing, dressing, showering and being naked in front of others.

Such feelings can hamper women who are actively attempting to improve their health and well-being.

These experiences are discussed in a study by Marianne Clark, a doctoral student at the University of Alberta. Clark says it was her own experience as a dancer and frequent user of fitness facilities and therefore of public dressing rooms and change rooms that led her to explore how other women felt.

“I walk into the change room and pace anxiously up and down the rows of lockers. I look for an empty aisle, hoping for some semblance of privacy. I don’t like to change in front of others, it makes me uneasy. Perhaps I’m uptight. Or maybe I have what experts would call ‘body issues.’ But either way changing in public cause me stress,” said Clark, giving voice to how many women feel in such situations.

The act of undressing and being naked, and particularly where there is the potential to be observed by others, can be daunting, as much of the way we think about ourselves and our self-confidence is wrapped up in our notion of ourselves as fully clothed.

Undressing in front of others, can, according to Clark, “disrupt” our experience of ourselves, because it reveals an intimate self we don’t usually freely display.

Clark says in talking to other women about their experiences in these spaces, “They all had a story and it usually involved a time when there was another person involved.”

One woman described being preoccupied walking into the gym, then suddenly becoming aware of the presence of others in the change room and being reluctant to reveal her more intimate self.

She said, “I angle my body this way and that as I undress and dress in the locker room. I look down to button my pants, I see my small breasts, my protruding stomach, no longer held in, contained and covered by my control top nylons and stylish skirt. This naked me is almost unfamiliar to me, so different than who I am all day, when I march around and am busy and efficient and in charge. But now, as I stand practically naked in the change room, no one can see that part of me, all there is to see is my body.”

Not every woman feels this sense of discomfort. Some found the experience of being surrounded by many other women’s bodies together after a workout comforting. “I like the time in the change room after a workout,” said one participant.

“I like being in a space where my body is just a body among other bodies. I know people might see me naked or partly naked but it doesn’t bother me, this is who I am, this is my body, this is how I am in the world. I like being around all these other women of all shapes and sizes, it makes me feel connected to who I am, and somehow close to them.”

In her research Clark discovered that older women expressed the same concerns about dressing and undressing in the change room as younger women. However, “I think they spoke more reflectively about why we might experience these feelings of self-consciousness or modesty in a gym and they could articulate that. Although one said, ‘I can’t believe I still feel this way, but I do.’

“Women also talked about their body as an entity over which they have no control – it was sagging or ageing, or it just did not comply with standards of conventional beauty. And while they were OK with that, they didn’t want anyone else to see it.”

According to Clark, many women first became self-conscious about their bodies while teenagers. “A lot of the women I spoke to, if not every single one of them, could recall feeling painfully self-conscious in physical education class and said changing in the fitness center reminded them of changing after gym class at school,” said Clark.

Another factor is the “body beautiful” ideal in Western culture. Being beautiful is celebrated both dressed and undressed, as something to look at and a reason to be seen – the ideal is young, very thin and toned.

Clark says this cultural bias influences an individuals’ feelings about the shared undressing experience of the change room.

“I think even in the change room, women are carrying with them these knowledge’s and understandings (of the fit female body) that society has constructed,” she says.

A potential remedy for this unhealthy angst can be a better designed changing room that takes into consideration how people feel about changing in public spaces. A more user friendly space should be designed to allow everyone to be secure.

“Currently change rooms are designed for efficiency. As our lifestyles continue to change and gyms become a more important part of getting exercise, the change room becomes an increasingly interesting space to consider.

“So I think it does actually merit some study. There are so many obstacles to going to a gym for the first time, from using the equipment, to knowing how to use the equipment, to navigating your way around the space.

“And then for people who find change rooms a difficult space, that’s a barrier too. So I think we can be more thoughtful in general, but also in our approach to these spaces and what they might mean for the way that women understand themselves in relationship to health and fitness.”

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Rick Nauert PhD

Dr. Rick Nauert has over 25 years experience in clinical, administrative and academic healthcare. He is currently an associate professor for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professionals doctoral program in health promotion and wellness. Dr. Nauert began his career as a clinical physical therapist and served as a regional manager for a publicly traded multidisciplinary rehabilitation agency for 12 years. He has masters degrees in health-fitness management and healthcare administration and a doctoral degree from The University of Texas at Austin focused on health care informatics, health administration, health education and health policy. His research efforts included the area of telehealth with a specialty in disease management.